"I've always been a loner, slow at making friends," sings Alex Jones (in an almost impenetrable Russian accent), but he doesn't let that get him down. Jones sings utterly honest songs about his everyday life, his adopted home of Australia, and, more than anything else, love. Comparisons to the late, great Wesley Willis are not unfair - though not as obsessive-compulsive as Willis' ouvre, Jones's songs do roughly all sound the same, his tone-deaf singing accompanied by rinky-dink Casio rhythms. Unlike Willis, however, Jones doesn't appear to have any severe mental problems, though he certainly has a shaky grasp of the English language. He couldn't look less rock'n'roll - the conservatively-dressed bespectacled middle-aged Jones looks like an insurance salesmen. And, for all I know, he very well may be.
I first discovered Jones last February trawling the internet for a Mardi Gras song, and boy, did I find one. I had never heard anything quite like "Mardi Gras," which was actually a heartfelt plea for gay tolerance: "Gays are successful in keeping profile, Attracting young people by their lifestyle." More recently I went back and listened to a lot more of his sweet and sincere songs. "Judge me carefully...I have love I can't express," he sings in "Counryman" (I think there's supposed to be a "T" in there, but hey, that's how he spells it.) You can't top this one though - apparently he tried his hand at meditation and this is the jaw-dropping result:
"Mantra" - Listed next to each song on his site is the song's genre, "country," "reggae," etc. Next to this one it just says "unknown."
Yup...
1 comment:
I first heard Alex when he submitted a bunch of songs to a new artists comp our company had created (he submitted songs in practically every category from pop to hip hop!). I did my best to try to make sure he won at least one of the categories but I think he was beaten in the end.
It sure didn't seem to slow him down though! His music is available at just about every site that hosts MP3's.
As idiosyncratic as the music is (both from a lyrical and production point of view) I really dig his earnestness, and he seems to put a lot of effort into squeezing dense arrangements out of his Yamaha/Casiotone thingamabob.
He also does some Russian language songs but they're somehow less unique than his English ones.
So Alex, I salute you, both as a fellow Australian and music lover!
Post a Comment